Related papers: Tidal Decay of Close Planetary Orbits
Over a hundred rocky planets orbiting Sun-like stars in very short orbital periods (<1 day) have been discovered by the Kepler mission. These planets, known as ultra-short-period (USP) planets, are unlikely to have attained their orbits in…
Tides may be crucial to the habitability of exoplanets. If such planets form around low-mass stars, then those in the circumstellar habitable zone will be close enough to their host stars to experience strong tidal forces. Tides may result…
Hot Neptunes, gaseous planets smaller than Saturn ($\sim$ 3-8 R$_\oplus$) with orbital periods less than 10 days, are rare. Models predict this is due to high-energy stellar irradiation stripping planetary atmospheres over time, often…
The Roman Space Telescope Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS) is expected to detect ~$10^5$ transiting planets. Many of these planets will have short orbital periods and are thus susceptible to tidal decay. We use a catalog of…
In this work, we present a transit timing variation analysis for 20 hot Jupiter systems, which we interpret with theoretical tidal dissipation models. For the majority of the sample, we conclude that a constant orbital period model…
Planets in the liquid-water habitable zone of low-mass stars experience large tidal forces, $10^3$ to $10^4$ times those on Earth, due to the small distance between the habitable zone and the host stars. Therefore, interior solid tides,…
There is an intriguing and growing population of Neptune-sized planets with stellar obliquities near $\sim90^{\circ}$. One previously proposed formation pathway is a disk-driven resonance, which can take place at the end stages of planet…
Close-in planets undergo strong tidal interactions with the parent star that modify their spins and orbits. In the two-body problem, the final stage for tidal evolution is the synchronisation of the rotation and orbital periods, and the…
We address the issue of the dynamical evolution of the Gliese 581 planetary system. It is crucial when considering the planets' habitability because the secular evolution of the orbits may regulate their climate, even in the case where the…
A gas giant planet which survives the giant branch stages of evolution at a distance of many au and then is subsequently perturbed sufficiently close to a white dwarf will experience orbital shrinkage and circularization due to star-planet…
The negligible eccentricity of all extra solar planets with periods less than six days can be accounted for by dissipation of tidal disturbances within their envelopes which are induced by their host stars. In the period range of 7-21 days,…
To first approximation, a binary system conserves its angular momentum while it evolves to its state of minimum kinetic energy: circular orbit, all spins aligned, and components rotating in synchronism with the orbital motion. The pace at…
The close proximity of short period hot-Jupiters to their parent star means they are subject to extreme tidal forces. This has a profound effect on their structure and, as a result, density measurements that assume that the planet is…
We present simulations of Triton's post-capture orbit that confirm the importance of Kozai-type oscillations in its orbital elements. In the context of the tidal orbital evolution model, these variations require average pericenter distances…
The habitable zones of main sequence stars have traditionally been defined as the range of orbits that intercept the appropriate amount of stellar flux to permit surface water on a planet. Terrestrial exoplanets discovered to orbit M stars…
Ultra-short-period (USP) planets are a rare but dynamically significant subset of the exoplanet sample, and understanding their dynamical histories and migration processes is necessary to build a complete picture of the outcomes of planet…
A significant fraction of the hot Jupiters with final circularized orbital periods of less than 5 days are thought to form through the channel of high-eccentricity migration. Tidal dissipation at successive periastron passages removes…
Short-period binary star systems dissipate orbital energy through tidal interactions that lead to tighter, more circular orbits. When at least one star in a binary has evolved off of the main sequence, orbital circularization occurs for…
Recent observations have shown that at least some close-in exoplanets maintain eccentric orbits despite tidal circularization timescales that are typically shorter than stellar ages. We explore gravitational interactions with a distant…
Earth-like planets have viscoelastic mantles, whereas giant planets may have viscoelastic cores. The tidal dissipation of such solid regions, gravitationally perturbed by a companion body, highly depends on their rheology and on the tidal…